The Demoralization of 
College Life 



Report of an Investigation at Harvard 
and a Reply to My Critics 



By 

R. T. CRANE 

Founder and President of Crane Co., Chicago 



Additional Copies of This Pamphlet, also Copies of the Following 

Pamphlets, May Be Had on Application to 

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The Futility of Higher Schooling 

(An Address to College Students) 

The Futility of Technical Schools 

In Connection with Mechanics and Manufacturing or Electrical and 

Civil Engineering 

(An Address to College Students) 

Common Schools vs. The University 
of Illinois 



Mr. Crane's Book, THE UTILITY OF ALL KINDS OF 

HIGHER SCHOOLING (331 Pages), May Be Obtained 

from A. C. McCIurg & Co., Chicago, or The Baker 

& Taylor Co., New York. Price, $1.00 Net. 

CHICAGO 
1911 



The Demoralization of 
College Life 



Report of an Investigation at Harvard 
and a Reply to My Critics 



BY 

R. T. CRANE 

Founder and President of Crane Co., Chicago 



CHICAGO 
1911 



J 



0>A 
V • 







The Demoralization of College Life 



F*- 



INTRODUCTION 

It is well known that I am out of all sympathy with educational 
institutions, so-called, beyond the common school. I believe that 
time and money are spent with no adequate return, and that six 
to eight years of the lives of our boys are worse than wasted through 
the folly of American parents, who are hoping thereby to equip 
their sons for a successful business career and to see them in char- 
acter and purpose a credit to the home and the nation. 

My investigations have covered several years — ten at least — 
brought about by my actual sorrow in seeing so many boys and 
young men a drain and a burden upon society through their inability 
to achieve success in any creditable calling. I have corresponded 
with many hundreds of college men; I have watched them in all 
trades and professions ; I have left no stone unturned to ascertain 
exact facts, to learn the unvarnished truth, and I have been com- 
pelled to conclude that the years between the ages of fourteen and 
twenty-two are being thrown away by thousands who under sensible 
conditions would make a success in life. 

My book on " The Utility of All Kinds of Higher Schooling " 
was the result of some of these investigations. This was followed 
by a pamphlet on ' ' The Futility of Higher Schooling ' ' ; or, more 
properly, a talk to college students, and this in turn by a pamphlet 
on "The Futility of Technical Schools," being a talk to technical- 
school students. 
<^i Although many colleges acknowledged that I was largely correct 

in my position that these institutions are doing little in the way of 
^ developing business capacity or insuring business success, they did 
claim that they were accomplishing something far better; that is, 
qj that they were builders of character. But feeling very doubtful as 
^ to the truth of this assertion and seeing many statements from the 
^T press and the public, from college authorities and college students 
i — j themselves, concerning the demoralizing influence of college life, I 



o 



determined about eight years ago to have an investigation made for 
the purpose of ascertaining the truth or falsehood of these claims. 

A WORD TO MY CRITICS 

Let it be understood distinctly at the very outset that I am not 
the author of the following pages. The report is from a college 
man, and the general compilation is from college sources and the 
press. It is folly, therefore, for my critics to attempt to deceive the 
public by pretending that I have made up this story. The only 
portion of the article which is my own is that giving my conclusions, 
and with this I think every fair-minded person, after a careful and 
thorough perusal of the evidence, must agree. 

WHY HARVARD UNIVERSITY WAS SELECTED AND HOW THE INVESTIGATION 

WAS MADE 

The selection of Harvard University was due to the fact that I 
was enjoying a visit from an old friend residing in Cambridge who 
was a man of exceptional ability and large experience in life, and 
who seemed to be of the opinion that this subject was worthy a 
thorough investigation. His interest was such as to cause him to 
consent, at my request, to find a man whom he could recommend 
for this work. He found such a man in the person of one who was 
a resident of Cambridge, had been a student at Harvard, and was 
then a reporter on a prominent newspaper in Boston, and without 
knowing personally of this young man's opinions or inclinations I 
engaged him. The facts of his residence at Cambridge and his 
attendance at Harvard were much in his favor, and being a reporter 
on a highly respectable paper in Boston (a position which I believe 
he still enjoys) gave evidence that he was a man of character, dis- 
crimination and judgment. I think a much longer search would 
not have found a man better calculated to make a true, unvarnished 
report, and I feel that this is a sufficient reply to those critics who 
claim that the gentleman was engaged by me for the purpose of 
making an exaggerated report and one that would be detrimental 
to the colleges. It seems to me much more likely that his inclina- 
tion would have led him to favor the colleges, rather than to make 
an exaggerated report. But suppose he did exaggerate conditions 
one hundred per cent, they would have been bad enough then to 
attract attention and demand some action. I have not the slightest 
doubt that everyone who knows anything about our colleges realizes 
that much evil exists in all of them. 



WHY PUBLICATION OF REPORT WAS DELAYED 

For a long time I refrained from giving this report to the public 
because it was so nauseating in its details, revealing a state of things 
in our colleges which should bring the blush of shame to every true 
citizen; but I Was persuaded finally that the interests of society 
demanded its publication, and a portion of it appeared in The 
Valve World for August, 1911. The great interest shown by the 
public in this matter has induced me to now publish the full report 
— excepting a few portions which are unfit for publication — at 
the same time adding some collateral material of general interest. 

CORRESPONDENCE WITH MY INVESTIGATOR 

No instructions were given my investigator, but later I wrote 
him the following letters : 

(November 27, 1903.) "In all such large institutions there is 
sure to be quite a number that will go to the bad, and the vital 
question is to determine something of the proportion of this class 
to the whole number of students. The next idea would be to deter- 
mine whether the surroundings of the college have any very decided 
tendency in the way of demoralizing the boys. Of course as a 
counter idea to this would be to show how largely the habit of 
industry in study and correct living prevails, if that can be shown 
in a marked manner, so on this line it might be well to show the 
other side of the question ; that is, the boys that do not frequent 
the haunts and to show how they spend their evenings." 

(December 9, 1903.) "I acknowledge receipt of your report 
dealing with the conduct of college men. This, I think, shows a 
pretty bad state of things, but in determining whether there is 
anything radically wrong to criticise in this direction everything 
depends upon the relative proportion of the bad conduct to the 
good, and I do not know how I could put my ideas on this whole 
subject before you any better than I did in my letter of November 
27. I wish you would give me your general views along the lines 
of this letter, especially showing up what evidences there are of 
those who conduct themselves properly. The establishment of the 
resort you speak of and which is sort of a club, but is open to all 
students, and where the boys meet in the evening to play pool and 
their mandolins and drink beer, I would not consider as an objec- 
tionable institution, as boys must have some relaxation, and I 
know of nothing better than this sort ; so I would regard this insti- 
tution, if properly conducted, as I suppose it is, as being all right.* 



*This club, as the report shows, was established for the purpose of counter- 
acting the evil influence existing in the social life at Harvard, which was my 
reason for stating in my letter that I approved of its existence, it being some- 
thing in the way of a compromise. 



The great question in connection with this, as I have said, is what 
proportion of the boys go to these bad resorts of which you speak. ' ' 

The foregoing shows conclusively that I was not looking for 
exceptional cases, but was trying to ascertain whether habits of 
industry or habits of lawlessness, whether vice or virtue, were domi- 
nating these schools of so-called "higher learning." 

CONDITIONS AT HARVARD FORTY YEARS AGO 

Before proceeding further, I quote the following from an edi- 
torial in the San Jose Herald, of September 19, 1911, wherein an 
old college man has something to say concerning the- old-time man- 
agement at Harvard University : 

"We are bound to voice our own strong conviction that almost 
every remnant of effective moral discipline has disappeared from 4 
our larger colleges and universities. 

"Those of us who were in college a good many years ago, when 
we now visit our own or other colleges can not but note the very 
great change that has come in this regard. Forty years and more 
ago in all the reputable colleges of the country discipline was a 
reality. The standard of conduct, industry and subordination was 
fairly high, and it was maintained. Particularly was there a code 
of morals which was reasonably strict and which was enforced with 
reasonable strictness. The community life was regulated by whole- 
some laws and these laws were far from being a dead letter. The 
incorrigibly idle, the insubordinate, and especially the profligate 
and vicious were remorselessly eliminated. And if suspended or 
expelled they had to leave the college premises, not merly pro forma 
but really and actually. For instance, a man expelled from Har- 
vard had to leave Cambridge unless that was his proper home, and 
in that case he could not set foot within the college precincts. That 
was the law of the college and of Massachusetts. In no good college 
were students allowed to come and go, work or play, or in general 
live as they pleased. The authorities of the college undertook not 
only to instruct these young men in the classroom, but they also 
accepted responsibility for their moral conduct while under their 
care, and they were clothed with ample authority to meet this 
responsibility. They became the ^mentors, guides and governors 
of the youth entrusted to their charge. ' ' 

The report of my investigator, which now follows, shows some- 
thing of the extent to which college life at this university has 
degenerated ; 



REPORT OF MY INVESTIGATOR 

(December 7, 1903.) "I submit herewith report along the lines 
suggested by you pertaining to student life. 

"My report is based on observations made at the Hotel 

for the past fourteen evenings, between the hours of 8 and 12 
o'clock, in the restaurant of the hotel. I have taken pains to note 
what I have considered the important facts." 

Sunday, November 22, 1903. 

Eleven students dropped into the restaurant, between the hours 
of 8 and 12. Enthusiasm at no great height probably owing to 
defeat by Yale on day previous. Three students left at 11 :30 
o'clock in bad state of intoxication. Four others left later with as 
many girls of seemingly questionable character. Other students 
present acted in an orderly manner. No freshmen present. 

Monday, November 23. 

Seventeen students entered shortly after closing of theaters. 
Majority freshmen. Shortly after 11 o'clock a party of freshmen 
entered, demanded drinks, and were refused on account of the 
"Blue Law" existing in Boston which permits of no intoxicating 
drinks being sold after 11 o'clock. After sharp altercation with 
the waiter they were ordered from the dining-room. They left 
peaceably. One party, composed of four freshmen and four girls 
from the English Daisy Company, ordered before 11 o'clock ten 
bottles of Mumm's. In addition to this order innumerable mixed 
drinks were served, with the result that two of the students, after a 
most disgusting exhibition of vomiting, were ejected in rough style 
by the waiters. 

I have noticed at this hotel that the management is becoming 
very hostile, indeed, to Harvard students. I learned, also, that 
patronage of the students had fallen off perceptibly in the last two 
years for this reason alone. 

At about 11 :45 two fellows (very respectably dressed, but not 
students, so far as I could determine) approached the girls left 
entirely alone by their escorts who had adjourned to a room upstairs. 
A few minutes later the two freshmen, still able to move about with 
some self-control, returned to the dining-room, and seeing the 
two intruders, immediately addressed some insulting remarks to 
them, with the result that one of the freshmen was caught under 
the chin with a hard fisticuff. A fight ensued, but the partially 
intoxicated freshmen were easily overcome, and the entire party, 
including the girls, forthwith ejected. Later the girls returned and 
were "picked up" by two law-school students living in Cambridge. 
At 12 :15 six students left the hotel with as many women. The 
majority of the remainder hurried away to catch the last car, which 
leaves the Boylston street subway for Cambridge at 12 :25. 



Tuesday, November 24. 

Fifteen students visited the , nine of whom were pres- 
ent the night before. The four freshmen present the night before 
were refused seats on the pretext of all tables being engaged. A 
fellow at next table cashed a cheek for $40 in order to pay score for 
evening. Three students were with him. No fights. 

Wednesday, November 25. 

Despite the fact that to-morrow is Thanksgiving and many had 
returned to their homes to spend the day, twenty-one students came 
in. They made considerable noise and drank very freely. Several 
girls came in and were immediately "picked up." The head waiter 
refused to serve any more wine to one party of four, who arose, 
roundly abused and insulted him, and then left with the assurance 
that they knew where more might be found. The waiter knew the 
young men well and says they are living lives of great debauchery. 
Four of the girls who had been "picked up" are members of an 
operatic company and went to their rooms in this hotel accom- 
panied by young men. All the young men who had come in earlier 
left around midnight badly intoxicated. 

Thursday, November 27. 

The cafe was full the whole evening, and students were much in 
evidence. Thirty-seven stayed, while many came in and not being 
familiar with the head waiter were turned away. Only the fact 
that I had been here regularly for the past few days accounts for 
my getting a seat. 

Every young man who came in was asked : ' ' Have you got 
ladies ? ' ' And a negative reply was bruskly answered ' ' No seats. ' ' 

The management is much to be condemned for condoning, and 
even stimulating, debauchery. 

The students were very lawless. Several fights were averted 
only by good luck. The drinking was very free. A party of four 
near me ordered seven bottles of champagne. They left the place 
at 11 o'clock and got into a hack and were driven away. I find 
that several students are "keeping" women at this hotel. Four of 
them are of well-known New York families. These spend their 
evenings up-stairs, and are frequently served with drinks. 

Saturday, November 29. 

Fifty-nine students were present. It was one of the biggest 
evening's work yet done in this hostelry and house of debauch. 
Waiters were powerless to preserve order. Two policemen came in 
at 11 :45 to remove three of the more objectionable. Songs were 
started several times during the evening by the students, but were 
immediately hushed. One man was severely cut about the head 
by a wine glass. Free fight in one corner of the room early in the 
evening. At the letting out of the theaters a vast concourse of 



chorus girls put in an appearance. Rough house reigned supreme 
from 11 to 11 :30. One waiter, while carrying a tray of drinks, 
was struck, or rather tripped up, and the contents of the tray fell 
to the floor. The majority of the students present I should say 
were drunk. The general run of drinks were cocktails, champagne 
and gin fizzes. One fellow stepped up to a small freshman and, 
without any excuse whatever, struck him in the face. The fresh- 
man wore glasses, and it was a miracle that his eyes were not put 
out. Later in the evening a law-school man (I understand that he 
is an old Princeton graduate) walked into the hallway where the 
big student was standing and took him severely to task for his act. 
A fight ensued, which was fortunately brought to an end by the 
timely interference of witnesses. The young men who were in 
evidence the past few evenings were present this night. They were 
drunk, as usual, but fared better at the hands of the waiters than 
did the others. Several went away with the chorus girls met in 
the restaurant. One young man tipped a waiter $5. 

Sunday, November 29. 

Everything was comparatively quiet. About 9 o'clock a well- 
dressed girl entered the cafe, in company with a student who was 
to all appearances under the influence of liquor. He remained with 
the girl but a short time, when, on some pretext or other, he suddenly 
rushed to the doorway and was not seen again. He had left with the 
girl some money, however, so the girl did not seem to be at all wor- 
ried about his action. Being desirous of learning the other side of 
the story, I addressed the girl and spent nearly an hour and a half 
in her company. Her stories pertaining to Harvard men were of the 
most interesting sort. She knew well nigh every Harvard man who 

ever had sporty tendencies. She gave me her address as 

and stated that her's was a house of ill-repute and that Harvard 
men were frequenters of the resort to a large degree. 

She stated that she knew the best fellows at college, and once 
had visited the home of one of her friends and passed as the fiance 
of her student admirer. She had received several proposals from 
students and had accepted two. She stated that she would never 
leave her present life, however, and would never have to as long as 
she had a paint box, good health and plenty of student admirers. 
Her estimation of the good qualities of students was not the best of 
recommendations. She maintained, however, that she never knew a 
"mucker" among them, and that, though an erratic lot, they were, 
in the main, true blue. Our conversation was finally cut short by 
the approach of an old Harvard friend of hers who was in college 
several years ago. 

Monday, November 30. 

Twenty-one students were present; thirteen freshmen. By the 
end of the evening seventeen left in a state of intoxication ; eleven 
of these with women. Of these young men who left with women, I 



10 

feel certain that the majority of them came to the restaurant with 
no worse purpose than that of drinking a few glasses of wine, but 
the girls present inveigled them into going out with them. There 
was extra care taken this evening to prevent a recurrence of the 
rough house of the Saturday previous. Two men were ejected 
early in the evening. 

Although I speak entirely of students among this crowd which 

frequented the there is also an objectionable element which 

has no claim to the college at Cambridge. These outsiders also come 
in for their share of rough handling by the management and the 
attention of the girls who frequent the place. One fellow, whose 
father is a Standard Oil magnate and connected with several rail- 
roads in the West, paid a bill for drinks of over $60. 

Three drunken women w r ere also "picked up" by one fellow 
whom I took to be a freshman. After the wine bill had been settled 
they ignored him and flirted with a couple of other fellows, who, 
by the way, I did not believe to be Harvard men. The head waiter 
was particularly objectionable to a party of four students, who 
left stating they would never again enter the place. In most 
instances suppers were ordered. I might add that it is the custom 
for the most part for the students to take food with their drinks. 

I learned that the is another favorite resort of the students, 

as is also the , the and the . At the latter two 

resorts, however, there are no serious rough houses, although I 
understand more money is generally spent for drinks. 

Wednesday, December 2. 

There was a fight in progress when I arrived at the hotel, at 
7 :45. Two young men with girls stated that several students had 
insulted them. I gathered later that they had tried to get the girls 
to stay with them. The fight was pretty rough for a few minutes, 
when the students were ejected. Twenty-nine students came into 
the cafe to-night. With rare exceptions they drifted out pretty 
well under the influence of liquor. The only occasion of a girl's 
being turned away since my investigation began took place to-night. 
This girl, it is said, has a malignant disease. She was later "picked 
up" by a student and the two entered a hack and were driven 
away. Cocktails were almost universally taken by the students. 
Several of the students went up in the elevator, presumably to see 
women, as there are only bedrooms above the second floor. 

Thursday, December 3. 

A party of students from one of the prominent clubs at Cam- 
bridge came in to have dinner before going to the theater. They 
got very intoxicated. Two of them made "dates" with girls to 
meet them after the show. During the evening thirty-four drifted 
in. These left the place in much the same condition as their prede- 
cessors. Two had come in automobiles and "picked up" two girls 
and steamed off. 



11 

There is a man in evidence at the cafe almost every evening, 
who seems to know many students well. He poses as a good fellow. 
He frequently introduces students to women. I have discovered 
that he earns his living in this manner. He is the "middle man." 
He has a most disastrous influence, but seems to feel quite secure in 
his position. 

Although the students pay little attention to him when they 
do not need his services, they not infrequently drop in and ask if 

this fellow has been in. This man is . He has a den on 

. I can give you many additional facts regarding him 

should you desire. 

Friday, December 4. 

. About thirty-five students dropped in between the hours of 10 
and 12. All of them ordered drinks of one kind and another. 
There was no special hilarity. As usual, fellows would address any 
pretty girl who happened to drop in. A couple late in the evening 
were sitting in one of the corners. Suddenly, after the meal, the 
fellow, not a student, arose and started for the door on some pre- 
text or other. The girl cried out: "Oh, don't go, George. I'll be 
disgraced sitting here with all these drunken students. I will be at 
their mercy." The fellow looked somewhat perturbed, then looking 
about him he spied a freshman sitting at the next table. "Would 
you mind sitting with my friend until I return?" he said, politely. 
The freshman, somewhat flattered by the honor, said, "Oh, no," 
and took his seat at the table with the girl. But no escort returned. 
Soon the waiter appeared with the bill, and it must have been a 
steep one the way that freshman opened his eyes. 

The freshman, of course, had to settle for the dinner that the 
other fellow had enjoyed. This is but an illustration of the sort 
of thing that the student runs up against when he degrades him- 
self so much as to resort to this low life. As usual, the majority of 
students left in a more or less inebriated condition. There was 
nothing particularly disorderly during the evening. 

Saturday, December 5. 

About sixty students found their way to the to-night. 

Shortly after 10 o'clock the head waiter refused to seat any more, 
whereupon there was considerable dissension on the part of a few 
students, since there appeared to be plenty of seating room in the 
cafe. As soon as the unseated secured ladies, however, the problem 
was solved and seats and tables were readily found. Two very tall 
students entered a little after 11 o'clock in a state of intoxication. 
Being unable to secure drinks, they seized a bottle of champagne 
from a neighboring table and a fight was nearly started. The two 
students paid for the bottle they had stolen and matters were 
thereby straightened out. The same freshmen who have been fre- 
quenting the place for the past two weeks were present. There 
were about twelve of these habitues present. Ladies are not allowed 



12 

to smoke in the dining-room. Consequently when one half-drunk 
girl in company with a student lighted a cigarette there was trouble 
at once. The student, if he was one, punched the waiter in the 
chest, and was immediately ejected after being made to pay his 
score. Nearly a score of students left with girls. 

Sunday, December 6. 

Arrived at hotel rather late — 10 o'clock. Everything seemed 
to be remarkably quiet. It is surprising to me that students who 
can afford the bills one must necessarily run up at this place are 
contented with the food they receive. The service compared with 
that of any other high-class hotel in town is remarkably poor. 
Several low women entered and partook of their Sunday meal. 
There were not over fourteen students present in the dining-room 
and consequently the girls found no one to pay their bills. Four 
freshmen entered in a party and drank for nearly an hour and a 
half, but no one seemed to have any special difficulty in leaving the 
room. 

You will observe that the average nightly attendance at hotel 

is about twenty-eight. This at first may seem small to one 

unfamiliar with conditions at Harvard. In order that a student 
go wrong it is not necessary that he should be in a place of ill- 
repute every night in the week. The great night for the students is 
Saturday, and as you will observe, the attendance reached sixty. 

Also in this same hotel there is a bar where students 

drop in for a drink or two every day. In conversation with the 
bartender I learned that the attendance was much larger than that 
in the dining-room, where it was necessary to order up food. In 

the basement of the there is yet another room where drinks 

are served in a more or less Bohemian style. I should say from 
what observations I have been able to make that the two bars, except- 
ing the restaurant, serve not less than 175 students an evening. 

When it is remembered that the does not monopolize the 

student trade, that the , the , the , the - — = — , 

, , and many others come in for a large percentage, 

some idea of what is going on in town after recitations are over 
may be gained. 

I enclose also brief outline of general conditions existing here at 
Harvard. These observations made at various times I believe are 
put a trifle mildly. A thorough examination of some of the per- 
nicious practices and resorts I am positive would astound the most 
optimistic of even biased observers. 

You ask my opinion of the general state of affairs at Harvard 
relative to pastime. 

The places of "laxation" are numerous about Cambridge and 
Boston, so numerous, in fact, that to find a score of students at any 
one of them at one time means a surprisingly large total in the 
aggregate. Many of the investigators of the conditions of Harvard 



13 

life have fallen by the wayside because they have never observed 
the conditions existing in the very shadow of the college elms. 

Harvard, as you doubtless know, is an institution with few 
fraternities. This is such a well-known fact that a great many 
people go a step farther and maintain that club life is lacking at 
Harvard.* I doubt very much if there is any university in the 
country where club life exists to a greater degree. There are two 
societies of about fifty members each (Pi Eta and D. U.) which 
"take in" a freshman contingent. There are also about four fra- 
ternities which also elect freshmen to their ranks. 

Clubs loom up particularly in the sophomore year. The Institute 
of 1770 is chief among the sophomore societies. This club, an off- 
shoot of the D. K. E. as found in other colleges, elects to its ranks 
one hundred sophomores. To gain access to this select body of men 
students have been known to resort to all manner of tactics. It is 
the really elite body of Harvard social life. From it the student 
who is enough of a "swiper" or who is particularly prominent in 
his class graduates, as it were, into the smaller and if possible still 
more select clubs. The members of the Institute have a very black 
name indeed as regards sporting proclivities. Plans are laid so 
early as the first few months of a freshman's first year to gain 
access to this organization. The freshman desirous of ultimate 

social success accordingly haunts , a pool parlor, and takes 

the prominent boys on little sprees in town. It is this type of fellow 

that is found at such famous resorts as the Hotel . Here the 

freshman drinks himself under the table, and passes all in all as a 
pretty good fellow. 

After his initial year of spending money and making solid with 
the fellows whose family prominence or athletic prowess assures 
them of a certain election to the Institute, the former freshman 
comes back to college in his sophomore year and lies in wait for a 
bid to the Institute. Finally rewarded for his efforts of the year 
previous the sophomore is taken into the Institute and from that 
time on his social position is secure at Harvard. Wine and all 
kinds of drinks may be secured at his club house situated on Mt. 
Auburn street. Some of the worst drunkards in college are mem- 
bers of this sporty organization. 

When it is remembered that the organization embraces one hun- 
dred souls and that these one hundred so-called fortunates have 
aspiring friends desirous of being seen in the company of members 
of the Institute and to act as they do and with them, the wide- 
spread effect of this club alone can begin to be appreciated. The 
Institute accordingly is the first influence felt to any great degree 
towards sending students on that downward path which leads them 
into all manner of trouble. 

The Porcelian Club is without question the most exclusive col- 
lege society in America. It is the only college club recognized by 
the Queen's Club in London. It is stated, and I learn on pretty 
good authority that the statement has foundation, that the yearly 



14 

dues of this club are $1,000. What the initiative fee can be must be 
left to the imagination. I have known by sight many of the mem- 
bers who belong to this strictly secret organization and must admit 
that some of them I have never seen when they did not smell like a 

storage room in a brewery. One member, named , was a 

member of class and the fellows used always to remark that 

they never saw him, even about Cambridge, when he was not satu- 
rated with whisky. It is that type of fellow that is never seen drunk. 
He has passed that stage where drinks affect one 's bearing — with 
them it is a question of perpetual saturation. The rooms of the 
Porcelian are said to be the best-equipped wine rooms in the vicinity 
of Boston. Information regarding this exclusive club is difficult 
to lay hands on and accordingly I only mention those facts that I 
feel reasonably sure about. 

Another ultra select club in Harvard Square is the A. D. Club, 
which has its headquarters in a new building costing over a quarter 
of a million dollars. It is only second to the Porcelian and the 
rivalry between the organizations consequently runs high. In times 
gone by when the captains of the various teams of the university 
were elected by the different clubs these two social societies had high 
times in gaining the control of the various athletic activities of the 
college. This club has not earned so unenviable reputation for 
drunkenness as has the Porcelian. 

Members of these two clubs, of course, are never seen at so vul- 
gar a place as' the Hotel or even the , their debauchery 

being of a more refined order. 

At the Pi Eta Club beer only is served to the members. Men 
are not accustomed to get intoxicated on beer, although on gala 
occasions there seems to be no little rough house in the wake of a 
couple of big kegs of beer on free tap in the house. 

At the D. U., beer may also be obtained. At the numerous 
other smaller clubs wine and beer may be obtained at will. The 
method of evading the law in a town where no-license is regularly 
voted by the citizens is as follows : 

Each member of the club is assigned a cupboard which has 
written upon it the name of the owner. One man is put in charge 
of the whole and has keys which fit each locker. When a man 
orders a drink the steward goes to any one of the cupboards wherein 
happens to be the desired drink and serves it up. In case of a raid 
the police are shown these cupboards with the names of the mem- 
bers written upon them and the contents are claimed to be private 
property. 

Another method is to order one's own wine from town and 
actually have it kept for one's personal use. In case of dinners for 
clubs wine is never lacking, oftentimes ordered from town for the 
occasion. 

An outsider can scarcely realize the amount of drinking that 
goes on in the club rooms of the college. The percentage that is 
found in town must not accordingly be taken as final. Boston as an 



15 

environ of Cambridge must furthermore not be attributed as the 
sole cause of the ruiaation of the vast majority of students who 
take to dissipation. I presume that the same condition of affairs 
would exist at a college of Harvard's dimensions regardless of its 
location. 

I do not doubt that even a worse state of affairs exists at other 
colleges: I have been around the other universities to a consider- 
able extent as manager of two of the university athletic organiza- 
tions, and know to a certain extent the existing conditions. At 
Princeton the boys assemble at the Princeton Inn for their beer. At 
Princeton it is beer, beer, beer. The town is license and the body 
of students, in my mind, drink even more than do Harvard men. 
In the basement of the Princeton Inn after a victory of any kind the 
entire college assembles and sings songs and drinks beer till mid- 
night. On one occasion I believe there must have been over two 
hundred students dead drunk. 

At Yale drinking is recognized to so great a degree that clubs 
have their tables at tbe bar-rooms and in some of the bars the 
students carve their initials in the tables and these tables are after- 
wards preserved. I was never so struck in my life when I found 
New Haven the dissolute, debauched and whisky town that it is. 

At Cornell the conditions are somewhat the same, although I 
believe that Cornell students do not carry their excesses so far as do 
the boys at Princeton, Yale and Cambridge. In the grill room of 

the Hotel I found a long table, I presume of oak or walnut, 

which had engraved upon its surface the names of famous oars 
and athletes at the college. Every year I understand — or perhaps 
it is every four years — the top of the table is removed (and, by 
the way, the table is so constructed by the shrewd proprietor that 
the top can be removed with no difficulty, and another slab inserted 
at no great cost) and framed. The framed top of the table is then 
hung upon the wall to be looked upon with awe by succeeding 
generations. The Cornell students are great on beer as are also the 
men at Princeton. At Cornell, furthermore, there is more of the 
fraternity life than at any other large university in the country 
and consequently the needs of the students are catered to in private. 

At Pennsylvania the students depend on going down town to 
secure their drinks. I am not positive whether or not drinks may 
be served in Houston Hall, the club for all at Pennsylvania. The 
in the heart of Philadelphia is a famous resort of Pennsyl- 
vania men. This , of which no doubt you have heard, is the 

most perfect thing of its kind, and is consequently appealing to the 
sporty element. The Pennsylvania boys at this resort have their 
regular tables and waiters. I have seen no students actually drunk 
in Philadelphia. 

At Columbia I believe there exists more debauchery than at any 
other college, on account of its proximity to the famous resorts of 
the city. As far as I have been able to learn from friends attending 
this university, the students depend upon the down-town resorts 



16 

entirely. I have been at the , — that famous dance hall — 

reeking with debauchery and the most wicked influence, when 
Columbia and Princeton men have entered and spent an entire 
evening dancing with the low women found at this resort. Strangely 
enough the attraction seems not to be one of carnal intent. The 
students, I have seen with my own eyes, treat the women with the 
utmost respect, even as they might treat their own sisters. This 
attitude, in my estimation, lowers them all the more. 

Drinks are furnished for the women and in many instances the 
fellows bid the girls an affectionate good-night and leave without 
further ado. Of course, by this manner the students are making 
more solid their chances for another evening when their inclinations 
may be different. That Princeton and Columbia students should 
appear in these places dressed in evening clothes and in the eyes of 
hundreds of frequenters of the hall dance with the girls seems low 
indeed. In conversation with some of the women I learned on one 
of my tours of investigation last May that the girls depended 
largely on the college boys for their good time. 

Returning to the conditions at Harvard University, will say 
that you will doubtless be surprised that the Union, the new club 
made possible by the generosity of Colonel Higginson, an old Har- 
vard graduate, allows the use of punches and beer inside its walls. 
First it might be well to tell you in as brief space as possible the 
position of the Union at Harvard. Three years ago it was decided 
that there should be at Harvard a building which should be open to 
any student who should pay an annual fee of $10. This building, 
finally erected at the corner of Quincy and Harvard streets, was to 
be devoted to club life based on the most democratic lines. It was to 
be as Houston Hall is to-day at Pennsylvania. Any man was to be 
eligible to the club. The building stands to-day, a monument to this 
great effort to dash down club life and cliques at Harvard. It has 
succeeded in a large measure. To-day fellows of every creed, station 
and means meet in the building, which is a model of perfect 
appointment, and become more or less familiar with one another. 
In the great building are located the college papers, with the excep- 
tion of the Lampoon, the dispenser of wit at the college, and two 
immense pool rooms for use of the students. Dining-rooms, perfect 
in every detail, together with assembly rooms, make up the general 
equipment of the building. The management of the Union is in 
the hands of an advisory board made up of students and college 
authorities. At first there was decided opposition on the part of 
the managing board to the permission of the use of liquors. So 
many of the parties that made it a point to hold meetings, such as 
glee clubs, mandolin club rehearsals, state meetings, etc., raised a hue 
and cry for the privilege of using beer in the building, that per- 
mission was finally granted for the use of liquors on special occa- 
sions. When this announcement was definitely made there was a 
fearful onslaught of editorial comment from the press in the 
vicinity. 



17 

The pool rooms in the Square can hardly be called schools for 
crime, although many hours during the day are wasted by the 

average student of Harvard. is the pool room for the 

upper classmen. is the pool room for the freshmen. At 

those men are for the most part found who are desirous of 

making acquaintances and indirectly thereby gaining entrance to 
some club. The price is 5 cents per cue. It can readily be seen 
that with six to a dozen students in the game the amount of money 
sometimes expended is great. To be constantly in this pool room, 
as are the very best fellows of the university, is a cause for much 
bad showing in studies. 

Although it is not generally known, I have positive proof that 
so much on the spot ball is often the order of the day. The man 
who puts the "I" ball in the designated side pocket according to 
the game receives a quarter from each of the players. From time 
to time the proprietors make a feeble attempt to stop this pernicious 
practice, with the result that it is conducted now in a more or less 

unnoticeable manner. At the same gambling is carried on 

to a less degree. I have never made observations of a definite char- 
acter in , so can not inform you as to the number of men 

who actually frequent this ultra-refined pool parlor. 

Leaving Cambridge for Boston, where the student finds himself 

after his little time at the club or a game of pool at , the 

student is to be found during the first part of the evening at the 
theater witnessing the latest extravaganza. Immediately on the 
closing of the theater he either takes his way to the stage entrance 

or steers a direct course to the , , , , 

. , , or . 



At these resorts the student orders a supper and with two or 

three companions starts in for a good time. At the parlors 

on street a few students occasionally take themselves. I 

should judge that not more than eight or ten on the average would 
happen in there of an evening. At the parlors only tem- 
perance drinks are sold. Prostitutes, however, are waiting there in 
hopes of obtaining the money of the men who frequent the dive. 
The parlors, with the exception of the fact that only temperance 
drinks are sold, are similar to those found on Twenty-ninth street, 
New York. On the whole, most students are hardly depraved 
enough to frequent this low sort of a place. 

Other places of ill-repute where Harvard men are found are 

, a famous dance-hall which caters occasionally to the show 

girls and to the students ; Hotel , where students take their 

mistresses for the night, and the Hotel, another hotel of 

bad-repute. Of course, when students make use of these resorts 
they do it in as quiet a manner as possible. 

After conferring with many friends in different walks of college 
life at Harvard and after making numerous observations and 



18 

examining reports, I am able to give you the following estimates, 
which I believe hit the nail on the head and should now put you on 
sure footing. These figures, I believe, are as accurate as any figures 
could be short of two or three years of the most painstaking inves- 
tigation. 

On the basis of 100 students : 

That drink liquor of some kind in freshman year . . 90 per cent. 

That drink liquor of some kind in senior year 95 per cent. 

That combine to mild degree wine and bad women. 65 per cent. 

That drink heavily 35 per cent. 

That have two or three "bats" a year also . . .45 per cent. 

That go irretrievably to the bad (drunkards) 15 per cent. 

WHAT CLARENCE F. BIRDSEYE HAS TO SAY ALONG THIS LINE IN HIS BOOK, "THE 
REORGANIZATION OF OUR COLLEGES" 

To those of my critics who seek to belittle the report of my inves- 
tigator, as well as to any one who desires more light on the demoral- 
ization existing in our colleges, I recommend the reading of the book 
above mentioned. The author evidently investigated the subject 
with great care, and the account which he gives of conditions as he 
found them presents a picture even more terrible than that given 
in my investigator's report. He points out that the demoralizing 
conditions are not confined to the college students, but that they 
extend along to the professors and the alumni and even down into 
the preparatory schools. His story is so long that I can not go into 
it to any extent, but he sums it all up in the following remark : 

"In many of our larger colleges and universities, and too many 
of our smaller ones, a very considerable part of the college home 
life is morally rotten — terribly so. ' ' 

In closing his chapter on "The College Home and College 
Vices, ' ' he says : 

"This chapter to this point has been submitted to many men 
prominent in and out of college and I have been much interested in 
their replies. One who is at the head of a great and successful 
religious movement among undergraduates of the West writes : 
' These are hard things, but true. ' Another says : 'You have rather 
understated the facts as I believe them to be in four Southern 
institutions with whose student conditions I am intimately 
acquainted.' One thinks that from his own experience the facts 
must be exaggerated. Two doubt the advisability of publishing the 
facts so fully, yet expressly state that they were correctly given. 
Not one denies that in the main the arraignment is justifiable and 
correct. Not one has a word to say approving the past course of the 
colleges in these matters. Others have thanked me for the chapter 
and heartily approve of my position therein. One divine, who for 



19 

many years had been at the head of the college work of a great 
religious denomination, in answer to my question whether I should 
publish this chapter replied, 'Yes, by all means; even if you print 
nothing else!' " 

As this book was published two years ago, it is a little late now 
for the college authorities to assume an air of innocence and pretend 
that the facts brought out by my investigator's report have come to 
them as a great surprise. 

" THE CURSE OF EDUCATION " 

Harold Gorst, an eminent English author, journalist and scholar, 
has published a book bearing the above title, in which he roundly 
condemns the higher educational institutions, but from a very dif- 
ferent standpoint, and to those desiring still further light on this 
subject I recommend that they also read this. 

MY REPORT CORROBORATED BY COLLEGE MEN 

OPINION OF DAVID STARR JORDAN 

In an address delivered at the University Club, Chicago, in 
May, 1910, he said, among other things: 

"Princeton Inn is one of the greatest criticisms against higher 
education. There is no excuse for a system which allows a young 
college man to fill up with drink on the campus until a certain 
hour, then to spend the remainder of the night in other places of 
his choosing. They find their way to saloons of disreputable char- 
acter while the so-called 'red light district' in the cities near the 
institutions which tolerate such practices are filled with these young 
men. 

"Sooner or later the heads of colleges or universities will be 
forced to prohibit absolutely the use of liquors on the campus. A 
continuance of conditions as they exist now in some places means 
the death of these fraternities. 

"One time we celebrated a great football victory. Two hundred 
students from the University of California spent the night on the 
campus. The fraternity houses were open all night. Two hundred 
drunken rowdies marched through the library, a thing the library 
was not accustomed to. Beer kegs were carried over to the steps of 
the sorority house and some of the boys made a night of it there. 
Later one student went to a saloon down town, got drunk, came 
back, and got into the wrong house. Some one shot him. That 
decided the authorities. We suspended the ringleaders of the 
gang that invaded the library. Then one hundred and thirty other 
students said they were just as guilty. What were we going to do 
about it? We let them go, too." 



20 

MR. E. C. MERCER, SECRETARY OF ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES OF NORTH 

AMERICA 

Mr. E. C. Mercer, who is special secretary of the Association of 
Colleges of North America, is following up this matter for the asso- 
ciation, which shows that it has taken upon itself the work of 
reforming college men. He is its special agent and is visiting the 
colleges and delivering a lecture, entitled ' ' College Men I Have Met 
in the. Slums and Prisons of New York. ' ' In its literature mention 
is made of fifty-eight colleges and universities at which he has 
delivered lectures. This is accompanied by a large number of cer- 
tificates from the heads of these institutions, certifying to the good 
work that he is doing, which is practically an admission of the gen- 
eral demoralization which exists among the students and makes such 
work necessary. If further proof be necessary, let me quote from 
a letter received from Mr. Mercer, in which he says : 

"I did say, and have written proof to back me up, that I had 
met personally and have heard from the most reliable authorities 
of some twelve hundred college-bred men in the slums, prisons, 
jails and sanitariums, who were down and out through fast living. 
I have the pictures of about fifty of these college-bred men who 
have wound up in slums and prisons; also have the letters from 
about fifty others asking me for help, and while I did slum and 
prison work in New York city I came in personal contact with 
scores of these college-bred men down and out. In one gospel tent 
on West street, New York city, last summer, sixteen college-bred 
men down and out applied for help. The noted bread line of our 
city is constantly having college-bred men in it. ' ' 

VIEWS OF WOODROW WILSON 

Mr. Woodrow Wilson, formerly president of Princeton Univer- 
sity, has said : 

"A man who takes a course of four years of social life at some 
university has thrown away four years of that natural power to 
work, which descended to him from his great progenitor, Adam." 

If there were not many who are found in our colleges dissipating 
time and money in various social habits, why these comments by 
such an able and experienced educator and historian as Woodrow 
Wilson ? 

This certainly can not be considered a careless or idle statement. 
He must have had something very deep in his mind to cause him to 
make such a remark. 



21 

WENDELL PHILLIPS 

This gentleman is reported to have said that college men are the 
last ones to overcome their indifference to a great moral issue. 

CHANCELLOR SAMUEL AVERY 

His views on this subject are shown in the following article which 
recently appeared in one of our newspapers : 

"Decrying the abuse of intoxicants at university social func- 
tions, Chancellor Samuel Avery at the convocation of the Univer- 
sity of Nebraska to-day (September 26) said he agreed with R. T. 
Crane of Chicago as to intemperance in educational institutions. 

" 'It is true,' said Chancellor Avery, 'that student life is every- 
where characterized by some undesirable features and always will 
be, since education can not well be deferred until the student has 
become as staid as his parents.' " 

EDGAR F. SMITH, PROVOST, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

Following are two newspaper references to an address which 
Provost Smith recently delivered to the students of this university : 

[From The Pennsylvanian.] 

"The Provost made his appeal especially strong and forceful 
because many of his auditors had severed home-ties and influences 
for the first time, and it was in the name and for the sake of the 
beloved ones at home that he pleaded for clean living. He recited 
instances, without giving any names, of boys who had fallen in with 
bad associates and had 'gone wrong' at college. 

" 'There will be men with whom you will meet,' said the Pro- 
vost, 'who will "pooh-pooh" what I have said, but boys, I have seen 
more of life than they. I know what drink and the red light have 
done for other boys and I know that those boys have lamented 
their indiscretions. I have seen boys go back home broken in 
health and spirit simply because they got started wrong. I have 
seen mothers and fathers heart-broken because their boys had taken 
the advice of these boys who will try to make you think it is smart 
and manly to go out into the world and experience these pleasures, 
so-called. Don't do it, boys, don't do it.' " 

[From the New York Evening Post.] 

"The new Provost of Pennsylvania, Prof. Edgar F. Smith, made 
an inauspicious beginning yesterday by assailing the gilded butter- 
flies who flit through college. How can he hope to be a popular 
president if he insists that a university is not the place to idle 
genteelly for four years? He actually asserted that 'no loafers 
should be permitted to come to any college.' Even more tactless 
were his remarks that 'too many come to college just for the social 
life and athletics, or because their fathers are members of the 



22 

alumni, or because their mothers realize the advantage socially of 
a college degree; a radical reform in our colleges is needed.' Evi- 
dently, this Provost is a Progressive, not to say an Anarchist. To 
attack the social value of our colleges is to undermine the funda- 
mentals of our academic world. What will become of our higher 
institutions of learning if it should become popular to think of 
them as something else than places to put a polish on young gentle- 
men or to afford athletes an opportunity for distinction? The 
athletic craze, Provost Smith also attacks, and then, like that old 
fogy ex-President Eliot, he pretends to believe that hard, intel- 
lectual work is not only the duty of the college-man, but one of the 
keen, durable satisfactions of life. It is surely highly reprehensible 
of him to declare : 

" 'Hundreds of young men are ruined annually by four years 
of dallying at college. These loafers come to college, work several 
hours a day, write home and tell their parents of how they are 
working, and then in some manner manage to slip through and 
graduate. But the dallying habits formed in their college years 
cling to them and they dally through life and accomplish little.' " 

It will be seen from the foregoing that the New York Evening 
Post finally has come to its senses and recognizes the truth of my 
investigator's report. 

DOCTOR VIRCHOW 

At the Berlin Conference on Secondary Education held in 1890, 
Doctor Virchow observed : 

"I regret that I can not bear my testimony to our having made 
progress in forming the character of pupils in our school. When I 
look back over the forty years during which I have been professor 
and examiner — a period during which I have been brought in con- 
tact not only with physicians and scientific investigators but also 
with many other types of men — I can not say that I have the 
impression that we have made material advances in training up men 
with strength of character ; on the contrary, I fear we are on the 
downward path. The number of 'characters' becomes smaller. 
And this is connected with the shrinkage in private and individual 
work during a lad's school life. 

"For it is only by means of independent work that the pupil 
learns to hold his own against external difficulties, and to find in his 
own strength, in his own nature, in his own being, the means of 
resisting such difficulties and of prevailing over them." 

MEDICAL TESTIMONY REGARDING CONDITIONS AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 

The following is quoted from a letter which I recently received 
from a physician residing in Columbus, Ohio : 

"I have for several years tried to get the university authorities 
to take some interest in the morals of their students, but thus far 



23 

without any avail. They seem to feel that they are responsible for 
the students in the classroom but not outside, and the students 
have come to be notoriously immoral. Physicians in the north end 
of the city, where the university is located, assure me that prac- 
tically all of them are diseased as the result of immorality." 

THE NEW HAVEN PRESS 

Some time ago the statement appeared in a New Haven (Conn.) 
paper that there were two thousand prostitutes in that city. What 
a fearful comment on college morals. These people are not in New 
Haven to capture the citizens in general, but college students in par- 
ticular. 

A MOTHER'S COLLEGE SON 

The New York Times recently published, under the above head- 
ing, a letter which I believe shows the anxiety felt by thousands of 
mothers in this country, and as the writer of this letter has stated 
the case far better than I could do, I quote from her letter as fol- 
lows: 

"With all Mr. Crane's so-called 'intemperate language and 
extravagant statistics' as regards college life to-day, he seems to 
me far nearer the truth than your editorial article on 'The Fresh- 
man.' 

' ' As the mother of a boy who has managed to survive his fresh- 
man year, with the resultant average of scars — physical, mental 
and moral — I feel qualified to speak. No amount of the home 
training, so wisely and justly extolled, can suffice to protect the 
average boy when literally surrounded by a sea of vices, openly 
indulged in by the majority of freshmen, juniors, and even seniors. 
Many a man with high ideals and a fairly clean heart has fallen a 
victim to the atmosphere of wine, women and song. How much can 
then be expected of mere boys, whose moral training apparently 
ceases with college entrance examinations safely passed, whose 
youthful ideals are of necessity hazy and unformed, and who have 
their share of inherited tendencies to one or more distinct forms of 
evil ? 

"Home influence is responsible for much; and no doubt many 
a father has plowed the field for his son's crop of wild oats, but 
what has that got to do with colleges and what they stand for? 
It is begging the question to say that 'professors can only advise the 
"average" boy.' If they are to be true educators, it is their 
manifest duty to study the individual; and as to the 'ill-prepared 
and flabby -minded pupil who wants predigested mental pabulum,' 
why do colleges accept him at all? 

"The mothers who spend themselves in the effort to 'reinforce 
young minds with sturdy ideals.' and who then see their boys flung 
into an atmosphere reeking with viciousness — where chorus girls 



24 

and street walkers and drink and disease and the 'dope' doctor 
have an equal if not preeminent influence in the daily mental diet 
— will do well to heed Mr. Crane. It is perfectly true that college 
life, as it is lived to-day, ruins more boys than it ever makes good 
men. And the fault is not with 'home and mother' so much as with 
the system. ' ' 



GENERAL ROWDYISM OF COLLEGE STUDENTS 

This is another branch of the demoralization of college life to 
which I have not hitherto referred, but of which I think it is high 
time the public took notice. 

COUNCIL OF COLORADO COLLEGES 

The Council of Colorado Colleges sent out a few years ago to 
all educational institutions in the country an appeal regarding 
which the Chicago Record-Herald, of February 28, 1904, had the 
following to say : 

"Schools and colleges, by fostering 'dissipation, rowdyism and 
lawlessness,' have been held up to the University of Chicago as a 
peril to the nation. The arraignment of the educational institu- 
tions came to hand yesterday in the form of an appeal from the 
Council of Colorado Colleges, of which Vice-President Parsons of 
Colorado College is the chairman. 

"The appeal has been sent to every educational institution in 
the country in the hope that action will be taken by the college 
faculties. Among the sins charged to students are strikes to com- 
pel faculties to submit to unreasonable demands, the treatment of 
school authorities with insolence and contempt, riotous conduct in 
public places, deliberate insults to teachers, class rushes, hazing, 
fraternity initiations and undue attention to athletics. 

'We earnestly appeal to the directors and boards of control 
of schools and colleges to strengthen the hands of those in charge 
of legislation,' says the appeal. 'We ask the press to aid the cause 
by giving fair and uncolored accounts of rebellious and lawless con- 
duct of students, and we express our gratitude to those courts 
which have cooperated with educational agencies in convincing 
youth that "a crime is a crime," whether committed by a school 
boy or by some one else. Fully realizing that the school, the press 
and the courts have individually done what they could to aid in 
suppressing lawlessness among young people, we believe that exist- 
ing conditions demand the energetic cooperation of all these agen- 
cies.' " 

'It is true that occurrences that have come to notice recently 
are symptoms of a dangerous state of public mind,' said Dean 
Harry Pratt Judson in discussing the appeal. 'The law must be 



25 



respected, and I firmly believe that as a community we must co- 
operate with the Colorado Council. Where the student has a wrong 
standard of morals, this standard can be changed by the instructors. 
I do not think that arrest and punishment by law are necessary, as 
other methods are more satisfactory.' " 



SOMETHING MORE IN THE LINE FROM THE OBERLIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

OF ILLINOIS. 

I quote from the Chicago Record-Herald, of March 21, 1910, the 
following : 

"A report to be submitted to the Oberlin Association of Illinois 
at its annual meeting in Chicago at an early date charges the col- 
lege-bred man with being the most lawless element of modern 
society. The report has been compiled by an Oberlin alumni com- 
mittee of Chicagoans consisting of Attorney Joseph B. Burtt, Attor- 
ney Edwin H. Abbott, and H. H. Matteson, and the data have been 
collected from all over the United States. 

"The general indictment is two-fold. It accuses college men of 
being knowing breakers of the law and of being indifferent when 
they see the law being broken by others under their very noses. 
Among the specific findings of the committee are the following : 

" 'It was found that many college men elected to office in city, 
State and nation, after taking an oath to enforce the law of the land, 
are violating their oaths by not enforcing certain laws on our statute 
books. 

" 'It was found that many college and university men in Chicago 
belong to clubs like the Union League Club, the University Club, 
and other clubs in Chicago where the members have kept the bars 
of these clubs open on Sunday, contrary to section 259 of Chapter 
38 of the criminal code of Illinois. 

" 'It was found that in many instances college men are the men 
expected to prepare immunity baths for our delinquent and lawless 
citizens. 

" 'It was found that many college men are afraid to protest 
against lawlessness for fear such protest may injure their business 
or their prospects of being elected to some office. ' 

"After the committee had failed to enlist the sympathy of the 
college and university presidents with the movement to get college 
men into action against lawlessness, letters asking the whys and 
wherefores of the apathy were sent to the professors of sociology in 
every college in the Union. 

"The severest indictment of the men in power was probably 
that submitted by the department of sociology of the Shaw univer- 
sity of Raleigh, N. C. 

" 'College presidents,' reads the report, 'are not willing to 
enforce the law or even allow it to be enforced when it will cause 
them to lose students, especially rich or influential ones.' 



26 

"It was declared by the Michigan Law Review that college men 
become so identified with books that they place it beneath their 
dignity to get into action about anything. 

"The idea advanced by the men of the University of Chicago 
would have it that collegians, while in "college, get ideas of a stand- 
ard of living that it takes them the larger part of their most strenu- 
ous years to attain. 

"The committee was appointed by President Fred B. Mason of 
the Association at the annual meeting in Chicago two years ago 
and reappointed last year. It was termed the Oberlin Extension 
Committee. ' ' 

SOME LETTERS SENT TO THIS COMMITTEE 

[From Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.] 

"The indifference of college men to lawlessness lies in the train- 
ing which college men receive. During college life a large portion 
of students are themselves lax, seeming to consider that a student 
has special license to break moral and civic law. Those who are 
thus guilty are not likely to grow into firm upholders of the law 
after graduation. Another class of students, moral in their tem- 
perament and actions, pass their college years with indifference 
as to the lawlessness of other students. They seem to feel that their 
college relations demand the ignoring of wrong-doing when done 
by others. This habit becomes chronic. The cure for this is for 
faculties to insist upon true college order and lawlessness receiving 
its due reward. College lawlessness is at the root of the indifference 
of college men to social reforms." 

[From Ohio University.] 

"There is entirely too much lawlessness in college halls. College 
authorities are remiss in the duty they owe to the community to 
suppress defiance of law and violations of decency. An important 
duty for college men is to see that college halls are freed from law 
defiance and rowdyism on the part of the students. ' ' 

[From Shaw University, Kaleigh, North Carolina.] 

"The reason college men do not get into action against lawless- 
ness is because college men are law-breakers themselves. The col- 
lege student is very indifferent to the rights of any one outside of 
his university, his class, or his fraternity. 

' ' The students of a single great university have caused the death 
of two young men at society or fraternity initiations and the death 
of an aged woman at a class supper, yet no one was punished by the 
law. 

"College presidents are not willing to enforce the law or even 
allow it to be enforced when it will cause them to lose students, 
especially rich or influential ones. 

"The first essential of a good education is the gaining of a 
wholesome respect for law and order. Are we not educating crim- 



27 

inals in many of our colleges when we furnish an education devoid 
of moral instruction ? Do we not too much praise the plutocrat 
who gives the money gained by exploitation of the poor and 
ignorant for the founding of institutions of learning? We need 
more plain teaching that wrong is not right and that crime com- 
mitted by means of lax administration of law is, nevertheless, a 
crime. Students should be made to understand that they are not 
immune to the law just because they are registered in a certain 
institution. Let students know that there is not one law for the 
gown and another for the town." 

[From Harvard University.] 

"The false political philosophy which pervades and permeates 
American society is the reason that college men do not get into 
action against lawlessness. "We must come back to the disagreeable 
fact that government rests on force. We shall continue to live in 
a fool's paradise so long as we shut our eyes to this disagreeable 
fact. Let it be understood that the majority who vote for law will 
not respond to the call and rally to the support of the officers should 
they meet with resistance and the unwilling minority will at once 
offer resistance and a few elected officers are absolutely powerless 
before them. The religious institutions of the country are largely 
responsible for our false political philosophy." 

The stupidity of this letter ought to disqualify such a man from 
being employed to make business men. Such a reply to such an 
appeal shows an utter lack of sympathy for any efforts to stop that 
steady stream of vice which is inundating our country to-day. 

RESULTS OF PLANS PROPOSED 

The report states that only one college association, viz. : that of 
Valparaiso, acted favorably on their proposition, which indicates 
that they practically met with no success. I have no doubt that 
their failure to obtain the cooperation of the colleges generally was 
due, as some of them admitted in their letters, to the fact that they 
dare not take a stand for decency fearing that should they do so 
they would lose a great many of their students. 



INSTANCES OF COLLEGE ROWDYISM REPORTED 
BY THE PRESS 

Doubtless everybody has read many accounts of rowdyism among 
college students, as the public press from time to time has contained 
a great deal along this line, but. I have thought it well to incorporate 
in this paper a few of such accounts which have come to my notice. 



28 

VANDALISM AT HARVARD 

A few years ago the Boston American published an account of a 
particularly aggravating case of vandalism at Harvard University. 
The article is too long to reprint in this pamphlet, but the following 
brief extract indicates its general trend : 

When Janitor Shea, the other morning at 7 o'clock, went to 
open the door of Gore Hall, the Library building of Harvard Uni- 
versitjr, he was astonished to see that a pane of glass in the door 
had been smashed in. His first thought of burglars was quickly 
dispelled from his mind when his eye caught the words "Med. Fac." 
roughly painted on a near-by window. 

Opening the door the janitor came face 'to face with the white 
marble bust of George Washington daubed over with red, yellow 
and blue paint to look like a wild Indian. On the beautifully carved 
pedestal were the initials "M.F." Here and there all over the 
library were the evidences of the handiwork of Harvard's mys- 
terious secret society. 

In Superintendent Kernan's office the unpleasant smell of a 
couple of dozen broken eggs greeted him from the desk and chair 
and bookrack of the superintendent. On top of the desk he found 
this note : 

' ' I have ordered all statues in the Gore Hall reading-room to be 
painted. 

"C. M. Bailey, Scribes, 

"Med. Fac." 

WASHINGTON STATE COLLEGE 

A few months ago some of the students at this college raided 
the girls' dormitory at 2 o'clock in the morning, overturned the beds 
in several of the rooms, throwing the girls on to the floor and badly 
frightening them. For this piece of rowdyism, the three chief 
offenders were expelled. 

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 

The following report of an occurrence at Ann Arbor, Michigan, 
appeared in the Ann Arbor Argus, of October 10, 1903 : 

"Five freshmen students spent last night in jail and breakfasted 
and dined there. Five young men are on tenter-hooks as to the 
permanency of their stay at the university. 

"While the rush between the two under classes last night was 
harmless and everything was all right until the after celebration, 
youthful exuberance carried the students too far and placed some 
of them in the position of lawbreakers with serious charges hanging 
over them. 



29 

"The trouble began with an attempt on the part of the fresh- 
men to build a bonfire on the State street pavement at the corner of 
State street and North University avenue, largely with lumber 
taken from Sauer & Co. in front of the new Y. M. C. A. building. 

' ' The pavement is of asphalt block and would burn like coal. To 
have allowed this bonfire to be built would have absolutely destroyed 
the pavement at this point and the police interfered. They asked 
the students to take their bonfire to the campus, but some of the hot- 
heads started to rush the Officers, who picked up a little student 
with a sign he was about to add to the bonfire heap and started with 
him towards the jail. 

"The crowd followed and attempted a rescue. If they had dis- 
persed or taken their bonfire to the regular place on the campus 
it is possible that this first student would not have seen the inside 
of the jail. As it was he suffered for the sins of his would-be 
friends. 

"Hard chunks of mud and stones were thrown. Officer Ball 
was hit in the back with a stone. Officer Collins was hit on the 
shoulder with a big stone. Officer 'Mara was hit on the head with 
a chunk of hard mud and on the hip with a stone. Marshal Kelsey 
was also hit. Heavy rushes were tried and some of the officers used 
their clubs freely. At the corner of State and Washington streets, 
Officer Bert Gillen was struck on the head by a student in blue 
overalls and jumper and knocked to the ground. 

"At this point a student with a club hit Officer Isbell over the 
head, cutting a big gash in his forehead and felling him. Marshal 
Kelsey was also felled and while down on the pavement a student in 
a white sweater attempted to kick him in the head, the only thing 
saving Kelsey being a quick dodge and another student who inter- 
fered and ordered the kicker to stop. 

"As the student who hit Isbell with a club swung his club back 
again Officer Collins had him and started to the jail with him. In 
the meantime Deputy Sheriffs Gauntlett and Bert Gillen had 
started again for the jail with the first student who was handcuffed 
to Gauntlett. The crowd didn't see them go and they proceeded 
unmolested, the crowd following the clubbing student whom Collins 
had arrested, being prevented from rescuing him by all the officers 
who proceeded in a compact body. 

"Stones were thrown at the jail, and a couple of students who 
were talking rather loudly about getting out the two students who 
were already in the jail were hustled into jail also, and after this 
the jail was given a wide berth. 

' ' A few minutes later the officers picked up a student with blue 
jumper and overalls in front of the opera house whom Bert Gillen 
recognized as the man who knocked him down. This made five in 
jail and they remained there until brought up in justice court this 
afternoon. 

"Officer Isbell had four stitches taken in his forehead and was 
sent home in a haek. He demurred, and although so dizzy that he 



30 

could hardly stand, wanted to remain till danger of trouble was 
over. He is not able to be on duty to-day, but will be at his post in 
a few days. Isbell was hurt in the same way in a rush three years 
ago, his head being cut open by a picket in the hands of a student. ' ' 

The students who were arrested in connection with this outrage 
were fined $15 and costs each, which looks as though the town 
authorities were disposed to treat the students leniently and to con- 
sider such rowdyism of little moment. This is an illustration of the 
disposition which seems to prevail everywhere of treating college 
students as privileged characters in lawlessness and allowing them 
to do about as they please with little fear of punishment. 

YALE UNIVERSITY 

The latest instance to come to my notice is the following item 
from the New York Times, October 18, 1911 : 

New Haven, Oct. 17. — The Freshmen class in the Sheffield 
Scientific School at Yale University has been placed under severe 
bans for an indefinite period for rowdyism and vandalism on Friday 
night last, when the old custom of attempting to burn bridges over 
the railroad in the college section was revived. Director Russell H. 
Chittenden to-day deprived the class from all athletic and musical 
representation, either for the class, school, or university, for an 
indefinite period." 

Surely a dire and terrible punishment for a serious case of arson ! 

CORNELL UNIVERSITY 

"One hundred Cornell freshmen are suffering from the applica- 
tion of a chemical with which they were branded Saturday by their 
enemies, the sophomores. On the cheeks of each are marked their 
class numerals '07', put there with silver nitrate, which has burned, 
in many cases, deeply into the skin. It is feared by physicians that 
in many cases the chemical may leave permanent scars. The fresh- 
men were captured on the eve of a banquet and the hazing, with 
various sorts of torment, followed." 

HANOVER COLLEGE 

"President Fisher of Hanover College to-day expelled ten stu- 
dents and suspended fifty others from the various classes as the 
result of a class clash last night. The entire student body has left 
the college, and at a meeting held on the campus has decided not to 
return until the men are reinstated. The sophomore class barri- 
caded itself in the belfry of the college last night, and not even the 
professors and students with axes could dislodge them." 



31 

WABASH COLLEGE 

' ' The war between the Wabash college freshmen and sophomores 
came to an abrupt end this morning, when the police took a hand 
and filled the jail with obstreperous freshmen. The freshmen 
undertook to make a parade of the sophomores whom they had cap- 
tured and imprisoned during the last few days. The prisoners were 
heavily shackled and were loaded with chains. 

"The parade was halted by a posse of officers and the keys of 
the padlocks were demanded. The freshmen refused to surrender 
them, so all the guards were hustled off to jail and a charge of riot 
was preferred against them. Their hearing will take place next 
Monday. The shackled sophomores were taken by the police to a 
blacksmith shop, where the chains binding them were cut." 



UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 

' ' Eight hundred students of Wisconsin University Friday night 
gave a repetition of the nightshirt parade of two years ago. To an 
accompaniment of the din of tin cans vigorously pounded they 
paraded the streets and serenaded the professors, yelling and cheer- 
ing. Later they broke into a vaudeville performance and stopped 
the entertainment. There were several conflicts with the police, who 
tried to put an end to the parade. Two students were arrested. ' ' 

The following recent newspaper article contains some startling 
statements concerning conditions in the grand old town of Madison : 

"The people of Madison, the seat of the far-famed University 
of Wisconsin and the capital of the State, are investigating them- 
selves to-day to ascertain whether or not there is any real basis for 
the sensational charges hurled at them by Rev. Dr. George E. Hunt, 
pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church. He said : 

" ' If I did not live in Madison, I never would send a young girl 
to the University of Wisconsin — or any other State university for 
that matter. 

" 'I do not believe there are enough safeguards thrown around 
our girls here. I am talking about the girls and young women now. 
Conditions as regards our boys are even more deplorable.' 

"Madison has prided itself on being a model city. The charges 
of Dr. Hunt came as a surprise to the people of that city, and that 
is why the investigation is on to-day. 

" 'We line State street (Madison) with traps for our young 
men,' Dr. Hunt said further. 'There are any number of men who 
are lying in wait here just for a chance to entrap our green fresh- 
men. Allurements of every kind are being thrown to catch them. 
As for the young women, a cursory investigation will show just 
what I mean.' 

"Dr. Hunt to-day refused to go into his charges with more 
detail. 



32 

" 'I have said all I want to on this subject,' he said. 'The 
matter is now up to the people themselves. But we must protect 
our young girls and we must send them back to their parents the 
same sweet-mannered, sweet-minded girls they were when they left 
home. We are not doing that now in a great many cases. ' ' 

ANNUAL FRATERNITY DRINKS 

As showing that all of the demoralization in colleges is not con- 
fined to the students, but that sometimes the professors also take a 
hand in it, I refer to a statement which came to me from the best 
of authority, namely, from a gentleman who was one of the speakers 
at a meeting held in Madison some years ago. He stated that at this 
meeting, which was attended by prominent college men from all 
sections of the country, a number of papers were to be presented 
by men of high standing in the educational field, but that the audi- 
ence became so drunk and disorderly that the papers could only 
be read with the greatest difficulty. 



Do not the foregoing facts clearly show that the spirit of rowdy- 
ism and brutality is a regular feature of college life, and that while 
the heads of these institutions may not actually encourage it, they 
do make little attempt to stop it ? Is it not also true that the reason 
they do not undertake to stop it is their fear that this would result 
in the loss of a very large number of their students ? 

Apparently, the boys say to the college authorities, "We have 
come to college for the purpose of raising the devil, and if not 
allowed to do this we will go back home where w T e shall have to be 
respectable." Hence the college people conclude that, in order to 
have a successful college, they must wink at such deviltry and 
rowdyism. 

FOOTBALL BRUTALITY 

It is unnecessary for me to dwell at great length on this feature 
of college life, as the public press is doing so much in this direction. 
Unfortunately, however, the results in the way of reform thus far 
have been very meager, the reports showing that twenty-two young 
men were killed and four hundred and ninety-nine were injured 
last year in this degrading game. 

The following extract from an article in the Chicago Tribune, 
November 2, 1903, regarding a football game between the univer- 
sities of Michigan and Minnesota shows the extent to which this 
brutality sometimes is carried : 



33 

"Never before has a football team come back to Ann Arbor in 
such condition as the Michigan eleven reached here to-night and the 
nature of the marks is evidence which can not be contradicted that 
they were not received in any legal manner, according to football 
rules. 

"There is scarcely a member of the team who has not a bruise 

on his face and many have black eyes. A is simply a sight. 

One eye is closed and the other can barely be opened. His lips are 

split and puffed. B is little better and C 's back is so 

lame that he walks with difficulty. . . . 

" 'I have seen many football games,' said Trainer D , 

'but Saturday's was the worst, from the point of foul play, that 

ever came under my observation. I saw A punched any 

number of times, and once I saw a Minnesota man jump on E 

after he had caught a punt and knock him out with a blow on the 
jaw.' ... 

"A said, 'The Minnesota gentlemen punched us and 

slugged us all the time — and whenever they could. ' 

"B added, 'When I went over for the touchdown I was 

punched in the back of the neck and kicked in the head at least 
twenty times.' " 

A BAD FEATURE 

A particularly bad feature of this football brutality is that 
people who are looked upon as belonging to our best society not 
only tolerate it but actually encourage it. We see these football 
brutes being lionized everywhere, and their victories usually are 
celebrated by the college people in all-night drinking carousals, 
while the authorities make no attempt to investigate or punish the 
perpetrators of these brutal murders. 

A STILL WORSE FEATURE 

An even worse feature of football brutality is that it is not con- 
fined to the college men, but is continued down to the high-school 
boys, an instance of this being found in the case of the son of 
Rev. J. H. Barrows, of Chicago, who was kicked to death by a larger 
boy. 

The following letter, which appeared recently in one of the daily 
papers, shows what one woman has observed regarding this game as 
played by the younger boys : 

"Some time ago a few of the presidents of different colleges 
took up the subject of the football game, asking if it were not time 
for parents to act? 

"As the season arrives for this game we who have young stal- 
wart boys belonging to the teams are on the alert for serious results. 
Only last fall, when the Monarchs were playing with the Normals 



34 

at Washington Park, four boys were injured. My son requested me 
to attend the game. He said, 'You know, mother, some of us are 
sure to get knocked out. ' 

' ' I put some restoratives, bandages and extra handkerchiefs into 
my satchel and went to the game. The very first touchdown one 
young boy was seriously injured internally. When I reached him 
he was bleeding at the mouth, nose and ears. After working over 
him a few minutes he regained consciousness and was taken home. 
Two other boys were badly bruised and one widow's son, and her 
only support, was tripped and suffered a broken collar bone. 

"These all actually occurred in one game of football. Viewing 
it from a nurse's standpoint, I appeal to all who have young boys 
to use their influence against this terribly dangerous, rough game ; 
and as a mother, I implore parents to do all in their power to give 
this game its deathblow." 

STILL THERE IS YET A WORSE FEATURE 

If the demoralizing influences to which I have just referred 
affected the students only while they were in college, even then they 
would be inexcusable; but, to make the matter still worse, these 
semi-criminal tendencies which they acquire at college undoubtedly 
follow them when they leave there. These young college men by 
the thousands are becoming a potent factor in social life, and the 
hellish actions which are allowed to go unchecked and unpunished 
at college are continued afterwards in the community and are 
becoming an infection until there is rottenness in both public and 
private life. i 

STILL A VERY MUCH WORSE FEATURE 

The effect of this brutality and murdering doubtless extends a 
great deal further than this. When we find, as already referred to, 
that all this maiming and murdering of boys at college is being 
condoned by the best society and the perpetrators of these crimes 
allowed to go unpunished, and that the municipal authorities are 
paying no attention to them, can any one doubt that this is looked 
upon by those in the lower strata of society as justifying them in 
committing similar crimes? It seems to me that the same idea 
applies here that is found in the case of stealing, where juries, no 
doubt, are. influenced to allow the small thieves to go free by the 
fact that so many of the big thieves are permitted to go unpunished. 
Hence, we find men in high position and in low position robbing, 
plundering and murdering with much impunity. 

Approximately, two hundred murders are committed in Chi- 
cago each year, and seldom do we find any one being punished 



35 

for them. In fact, murder now has actually become a profession, 
and men can be found who will contract to commit this crime for 
as low a price as $15, as shown by testimony recently given in a trial 
in Chicago. 

Does not the foregoing show that the colleges are the hot-beds 
of degeneracy and crime? 

MY CRITICS 

From the foregoing the public can see clearly that the recogni- 
tion of these deplorable conditions in the colleges originates not 
with me but with the friends of the colleges ; yet certain critics have 
accused me of being a " gross exaggerator, " and some even have 
called me "a liar." One asserts that I hired my investigator to 
make this story up out of whole cloth. Still another claims that my 
position can be refuted very easily and then declares that my own 
men are no better than the college students; that is the substance 
of his refutation. The New York Evening Post accuses me of being 
a "muckraker" and "having an ax to grind," yet admits that I 
am very largely right in this matter. All this is merely begging the 
question ; the hurling of opprobious epithets can not be considered 
a reply to an argument, much less a refutation of facts stated. 

No sound arguments — no proof of the falsity of the report are 
attempted. All is assertion. Anyone who claims this report to be 
groundless as to facts and not representing fairly the morale of our 
large educational institutions must combat it with facts gathered 
from an investigation equally practical and unprejudiced. 

It has been stated by some of my critics and intimated by others 
that conditions at Harvard are better to-day than they were when 
my investigation was made, and, of course, I do not know whether 
this is true or not, but in the absence of any evidence being pre- 
sented to show that something is being done to check such evils what 
ground can there be for imagining that any improvement has taken 
place. 

Some argue that the fact that Harvard is under a different 
management now has made a difference, but in reading the remarks 
of President Lowell on this subject, which recently have appeared 
in the papers, I notice he admits that plenty of evil exists to-day 
both in and out of college, but he is very careful not to claim that 
the statements made by my investigator were untrue, nor does he 
claim that he has instituted any measures tending to combat these 



36 

evil influences. Therefore, I fail to see any reason for presuming 
that conditions there are better to-day than they were under the old 
administration. President Lowell also is reported to have said, 
with reference to the subject of drunkenness, that "no one is fit to 
be responsible for the lives of young men who does not use against 
it every influence which can effectually be brought to bear. ' ' Now, 
as I understand it, this university makes no attempt whatever to do 
anything in this direction; at least neither president Lowell nor 
anyone else has shown where this is being done. Nor has any evi- 
dence come to me of authorities of other colleges making any 
attempt to prevent their students from going to the bad or to secure 
any reports as to what is going on among these young men. They 
all take the ground that they are not responsible for the conduct of 
their students and that they must take care of themselves. 

The management of the colleges can not be excused for not 
knowing the conditions among their students and for not taking 
some steps to correct them. It certainly is just as easy for them to 
obtain information on this subject as it was for me. In my opinion, 
they owe it to the parents who send their boys to these institutions 
to look after the boys somewhat and when they find one who is 
going to the bad they either should send for his parents or compel 
him to return home. 

YALE'S ATTEMPT AT REFUTATION 

The Boston American, of September 11, 1911, contained a state- 
ment which evidently was offered as a refutation of the facts which 
I have presented regarding conditions at Yale University. This 
statement, which was based on "official figures," shows that the per- 
centages of students addicted to drink were as follows : 1908, 56 per 
cent; 1909, 59 per cent; 1910, 45 per cent; 1911, 60 per cent. As 
these figures are taken from their own showing, is it not very 
possible that the conditions at this university are much worse than 
here stated? And, in any event, can these figures be looked upon 
as a creditable showing? 

REGARDING THE PRESIDENTS OF THESE UNITED STATES 

Some of my critics raise the question as to the education of the 
Presidents of the United States and claim that a great many of 
them were college-bred, but they say nothing about the equally 
large number of Presidents who did not attend college and who on 



37 

the average were fully as strong Presidents as those who received a 
college education. 

GREAT LAWYERS 

It is also stated that great lawyers have come from these colleges, 
and on this point I desire to say that, in my opinion, no lawyer ever 
came from one of these institutions who would not have been a 
greater lawyer if, instead of attending college, he had entered the 
office of some excellent law firm. He not only would have become a 
better lawyer, but would have avoided the danger of being turned 
out a degenerate. And, in any event, the colleges are " producing 
four times as many lawyers as are needed for the good of this 
country. 

PRESIDENT TAFT'S REMARK 

Since the publication of my investigator's report the present 
President of the United States has seen fit to refer to it publicly 
in a way which would indicate either that he condones this demoral- 
ization in the colleges or that he wants the public to believe there 
is nothing in it. His remarks have been widely reported in the 
press and much has been made of them .as being an answer to my 
report, but any one of discernment can see the utter shallowness 
of his statements. 

If a person in ordinary circumstances and without college school- 
ing should make such assertions he would be frowned upon as being 
a fool, but coming as they do from one who is a graduate of Yale, 
was formerly a judge, and now is President of the United States, 
they are allowed to pass without comment. This country certainly 
is to be congratulated on the fact that he is the only man who has 
had the stupidity to appear before an American audience and advo- 
cate that when an evil becomes so bad that it can be unearthed 
only with a spade it is better to let it alone. 

What do the reformers think of this? Do they agree with the 
President's proposition, which is equivalent to advocating that all 
churches should be closed and reform work of every kind abandoned 
just because conditions become so bad that it is necessary to use a 
spade to unearth them ? 

A SURPRISE 

Although, as my investigations have shown clearly, the colleges 
are doing absolutely nothing in the way of fitting young men for 
business, I had felt that possibly the best product of these institu- 



38 

tions could be utilized in the field of journalism ; but the following 
extract from an editorial which appeared in the San Francisco 
Argonaut, of May 21, 1910, in answer to President Hadley's remark 
that the problems of the times called for trained men, shows that 
college-bred men are failures even in this occupation : 

"The Argonaut has always been predisposed in favor of the 
college man. Its work in all departments calls imperatively for 
discipline, judgment, and some culture. In recruiting its service 
trial has again and again been made of the college-bred youth but 
never with any approach to success. We have never yet been able 
to find a college-bred youth, without a long subsequent practical 
drill, who could write clean English or who could even write a hand 
which the printer could read. We have never yet found one whose 
knowledge even within the lines of his special study was dependable 
or ready. We have never found one who did not wish to begin at 
the top of the ladder nor one who did not find it imperatively 
necessary on the very busiest day of the year to cut his duties for 
the sake of attending some kind of an athletic or fraternity meet. 
Not one of those from Frank Pixley down, whose work in the 
Argonaut has been an element in its character and influence, has 
been a man of college breeding. This remark applies not only to 
the Argonaut, but to many other publications of the country repre- 
sentative of journalism in its higher rank. It is only a few months 
ago that there was assembled at a dinner table in the Century Club 
at New York a little group representing the very highest forces in 
American journalism — including the editor of Harper's Monthly, 
the then editor of the Century, and others of equal note — when 
through a chance inquiry it was developed that only one present 
was a college-bred man. In other spheres, too, the college-bred man 
is not found to be a trained man — trained in the sense of being 
equipped above others for the larger duties of social and other 
kinds of progress. . . . All of which may be taken to indicate 
that the young collegian is not always, if ever, a trained man in the 
sense of being prepared beyond other men for the higher oppor- 
tunities and duties of life. The trouble with the ordinary college 
career is that it tends through its diverting side issues — athletic, 
social, and other — to vagrant habits both physical and mental." 



CONCLUSION 

The claim has been put forth that I am too wholesale in my 
denunciation of colleges. On this point I wish to say that I have 
been investigating this subject long enough now to have very clear 
ideas regarding it and the time has gone by for handling these 
institutions with gloves or being gingerly about the matter. All 
lying is wrong, but to my mind there is no lying that does so much 



harm as that in regard to higher schooling, and an immense amount 
of this is being done. 

The American people must decide whether they can afford to 
put a burden of tens of millions of dollars a year on the working 
class in this country for the support of these institutions and to 
encourage the very best blood of this nation to enter these higher 
schools only to come out utterly unfit for business and with charac- 
ters ruined. 

After looking at this terrible picture of conditions in these insti- 
tutions, is it any wonder that business people throughout the coun- 
try decline to employ even the best to be found among the young 
men whom they are turning out? 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




